Manufacture of thread or the like



' April 1938. I H. B. KLINE E'T AL 2,115,025

MANUFACTURE THREAD OR THE LIKE Original Filed Jan. l2,v 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l "f g l INVENTORS HAYDEN B. KA/NE WALTER F. KNEBl/SCH ALDEA/ M BUR/(HOLDER 'BY- TTQ EY April 26, 1938.

H. a. KL |NE ET AL MANUFACTURE OF THREAD OR THE LIKE 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Fil ed Jan. 12

' INVENTORS HAYDEN B. Ku/ve' WQLTER E KNEEUSCH A H. RIO/OLDER M4 4, ATT EY Patented Apr. 26, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE or Taiwan on Tue LIKE Hayden B. Kline, Walter F. Knebnsch and Alden H. Burkholder, Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to i Industrial Rayon Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio,

a corporation of Delaware Original application January 12, 1933, Serial No.

651,404. Divided and this application November 5, 1935, Serial No. 48,356

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture by a continuous method of thread or the like, particularly artificial silk thread. The invention aims, among other things, to provide a manipulative process by or as a result of which, in a single machine, the thread can be conveniently spun, treated, stretched, dried, and wound or otherwise gathered in finished or semi-finished package form ready for shipment, distribution, fabric manufacture, or the like. The invention further aims to provide a process making possible a'closer degree of control in the manufacture of thread or the like, particularly artificial silk thread, with the consequent advantage of greater uniformity of product- Further objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in elevation of part of the machine on the line 2-2,

Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, other parts being omitted for simplicity of illustration;

. Figure 3 is a detail cross section, on the line 33,

Figure 5; Figure 4 is a detail end elevation of one of the controlling cams; Figure 5 is a,- detail sectional elevation on the line 55, Figure 2, through the end portion of one of the reels, all bars beyond the plane of section being omitted for clearness of illustration; and Figure 6 is a detail end view of one of the reel bars.

While the invention is capable of use in connection with the manufacture of any synthetic thread or thread-like article, regardless of kind, 0 and, more particularly in connection with any process of making artificial silk thread, such as the cuprammonium, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, and viscose processes, for'convenience but in no sense of limitation it has been illustrated 45 and will be described herein in connection with the familiar viscose process of manufacturing artificial silk thread. The purpose, of the invention is, among other things, to provide'a method by which the thread or the like to be formed may 50 be spun in any customary, manner and then led successively to various devices for subjecting it to the necessary treatment by the particular process by which the thread or the like is being manufactured, the thread or the like finally emerging 55 from the machine as a whole in finished or partly 7 each other, in regular order, any number of such steps may be omitted or other or additional method steps may be performed upon it, as will be 15 readily understood. Any or all of these various method stepsmay be performed upon the thread in one and the same organized machine, during continuous travel of the thread from the place of spinning to the device upon which it is finally collected. The drawings for convenience show only a few such steps, but they may be varied over a wide range, as will appear.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, the machine comprises a suitable frame including front and rear uprights 1,2 connected by horizontal cross braces 8. The frame, and indeed the'machine as a whole, is readily fabricated in the form of units of ,such a character that there may be attached to,

. units; so as to multiply to any desired degree the number of threads which may be formed or produced in a given multiple machine. For example,

as many as one or two hundred complete sets of thread forming devices may be readily included in a single machine and be operated in unison or by the same source'of powe'rr For simplicity of illustration, but a single multiple unit has been illustrated, which unit is shown as equipped to form six threads, although the number formed At the back-of the frame are mounted the necessary, devices for spinning the thread, such including the usual supply pipes, pumps, spinner ets, etc. (not shown). In placing the machine in operation, the spinnerets are immersed in the usual way beneath the surface of the acid coagulid. Except for differences in the baths used therewith, the process steps in which they are 55 40 in each unit may be more or less than six.

employed, their peripheral speeds, and the direction of thread lead thereon, these devices are alike inv construction and manner of operation;

' so that detailed description of one will suflice for all.

Generally speaking,- the reels l3, l3a, etc., may take the form of any thread-advancing device upon which athread may be wound-continuously in generally helical form in a manner to expose to treatment all of the thread thereon and from which the thread may be continuously unwound. In other words, the reel is preferably so constructed and operated as to enable the thread to be simultaneously wound upon it, advanced by it, V

and unwound from it. At the same time it must have the capacity to hold an appreciable length of the thread and expose the entire length thereof to treatment of the thread by the appropriate process reagents. Also, successive turns of the thread should not contact with each other at any point and the thread should not be subjectedto I undue ,strainor rough handling while upon the reel. Variousknown thread-advancing devices are available for the purpose. a

In' the arrangement shown in the drawing each reel is of generally cylindrical form. :Each includes'two sets of bars, Ha, Nb, all of more or 7 less rectangular cross sectionrand parallel to each other, arranged to form the elements of a cylinder; Together, the two sets cigars form a hollow cagelike reel upon which. thegt'hread is wound in generally helicalform. The reel is also provided with means for operating the bars, individually and as groups, so as to cause thread wound upon it to i take substantially a helical form and to cause e thread turns to progress bodily along the lengtliipf the reel to a discharge point. The reels may be long enough to take care'ui one thread or a plurality of threads, six threads being shown in the drawings. Theparticular reel illustrated is divid- .ed intosix zones arranged end to end, on each of which the reel carries-a large number of substantially helical turns of a thread, as many as from fifty to several hundred turns of thread, -although, for clearness of illustration, the turns are shown as more widely spaced.

Any number of said reels may be mounted in vertically spaced relation, five being shown in the.

drawings. The mechanism of successive reels I3, I 3a, l3b, etc., is so arranged asto produce travel of threads along the reels in one direction on the first reel, in the opposite direction on the next reel, and so on. As shown in v Figure l, the turns of threadprogress bodily from left to right on-reel l3, from right to left on reel l3a, from left to right on reel I 31), and so on. The thread is led from reel to reel in such manner that the transfer or carry over of the thread from reel to reel is O at the front of the machine, as shown in Figure 2. This is the working face of the machine and consequently all threads are readily accessible 7 to the operator.

In the machine shown in the drawings, the upper'reel I3 is a holding or set-up reel and the threadupon it not subjected to any bath. although 7 .mit complete regeneration of the cellulose content of the viscose.

The drawings show the second stage of the ma-' chine as utilized for a washing step, as,- for ex- 'ample, washing with hot water to remove acid coming from the coagulating bath or with hot.

water containing a small amount of a reagent 1 adapted to neutralize remaining traces of acid from the coagulating bath. The reel 13a is provided with suitable means for supplying wash liquor tothe thread upon the reel, such as a supply trough l6 mounted in the frame and from which wash liquor is delivered to the thread upon the reel either by suitable spray nozzles above it or, in the manner shown, by flowing over a hori zontal weir notch I! with its outlet above the reel axis. This weir notch extends the full length thread-s being wound upon it. The wash liquor of course showers down upon the thread and subjects every portion of the thread upon the reel to flowing wash liquor.v The length'of, each of the reel and supplies wash liquor for all the:

thread upon the reel, taking into consideration the speed of thread traveL is sufiicient so that by the time the thread leaves the reel it is com'' pletely washed. The Wash Water drains from from which it may be discharged to the sewer or recirculated to the supply trough l6, I

In like manner the thread on the third reel,

13b, may be subjected to a desulphurizing process,

as by treating it with a solution of an alkali sulphide distributed from a trough [9 by 'a weir red l3a into a collecting trough ,l8 beneath it.

notch 20 and collected by a receiving trough 2|.

Likewise, in the fourth stage, at reel l3c, the thread may be subjected to another washing step, with clear water, which is either circulated over and over again or discharged to the. sewer.

Cther reels may be provided for additional steps, such as a bath of bleaching material, an-

other wash bath, etc.; but the reels, collecting troughs, pumps, etc., for such steps have been omitted for simplicity of illustration.

Finally, thethread is led to the last reel [3d,

where it is subjected'to a drying operation. Reel l3d is enclosed within a drying chamber 24 in'a hollow casing 22 of sheet metal or the like, the several threads passing to and from said reel through very narrow slots or openings 22a. In

the casing 22 are finned heating coils 23, heated by steam or the like. The drying chamber 24 of said casing communicates by a passage 25 with a supply of air pre-conditioned as to moisture content. Thechamber 24 also communicates by pas- Y sage 21 with an outlet passage. As the air passes the heating coils 23, the temperature of the air r is raised to a point at which it will leave a predetermined amount of moisture in the thread.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 illustrate in detail one of the reel mechanisms. Each reel includes a central rotatable shaft 32 having keyed to it at each end of the reel a spider-like end head 33 having a series of radial notches 33a inwhich are mounted the rectangular bars Ma, Mb. Each of the end heads 33 rotates adjacent a stationary 'cam disc 34 rigidly mounted and supported upon one of the 1 cross frame members 3. Each cam member34 is provided with two cam grooves 35, 36, and with two end face cams 31, 38. Each bar is provided at each of its ends with an operating member 33 fastened to it by rivets 40 or the like and including an end arm 4| entering one of the grooves 35, 36 and a shoulder 42 abutting one of the end cams 31, 38. The arrangements at the two ends of the reel are alike in the sense that the end .75

the shaft 66 of the collecting device l5. It will be understood that the same motor 52 may be grooves 35, 36 in one cam member 3| are reversed duplicates of those in the other, whilev the end cams 31, 38 on the two cam members are opposit'ely acting or the reverse of each other. End arms 4| on the bars of one group, such as the bars Ma, are offset from said bars radially outwardly, while the-end arms 4-! on the bars of the other groupare offset radially inwardly, as shown in'Figure 5.

The end cams 31, 38 produce longitudinal re ciprocation of the bars -Ha b, whereas the groove cams 35, 36 produce radial motion of said bars, or, in other words, motion of said bars 130'.- ward and from the central axis. As the shaft 32 rotates, it carries with it-the two endheads 33 and causes the bars to move around like those of a squirrel cage, and as said bars travel their arms M and shoulders 42 travel in the cam grooves and along the end cams and cause the bars to reciprocate back and forth endwise and also to move in andout radially. The motion of said bars is diagrammatically illustrated and greatly exaggerated in Figure 3.

Generally speaking, the two cam grooves 35, 36 are circles slightly eccentricto each other and to the central axis, say by one-sixteenth of an inch in a seven inch diameter reel. They are not true circles, however. Considering the full 360 of the cage, there are two diametrically opposite zones M, Figure 3, each of about 30 circumferential extent, where neighboring bars of the two grooves are simultaneously in contact with the thread turns, and beyond these 30 zones M there are two very short zones N where the two sets of bars quickly change their relative radial positions, one group of the reel bars Ma moving inwardly and the group of bars Mb moving outwardly in one zone N, with the reverse action occurring in zone N on the opposite side of the reel. During travel through these zones M, N, while both sets of bars are in contact with the thread, and while they are rapidly changing their relative radial positions, the shoulders 42 are moving along fiat portions of the end earns 31, 38 so that both groups of bars have no longitudinal motion in either direction. When ,the bars have changed their relative radial positions, one group moving inwardly and the other outwardly, so that the turns of the threads are supported on one group of the bars alone, then the end cams 31, 38 begin to be curved and to produce longitudinal bar motion, that group of bars in contact with the thread turns moving forward to advance the thread and that group out of the contact with the thread turns moving backwardly or retreating to be ready for the next advance movement, and so on. From the practical standpoint, in the arrangementshown, thread advance occurs through approximately 270 of full rotation.

The end earns 31, 33 may vary in different reels, so as to provide different rates of progression or travel of the thread turns along different reels.

The operating mechanism may be of any suitable form, as, for example, an electric motor 50. A chain belt, or the like, designated 54, drives shaft 32 of the lowermost reel l3d. Said shaft is provided with a pulley 55 from which a belt 56 passes to a similar pulley on the shaft 32 of;

the next higher reel, and the drive is then from reel to reel by successive belts 56 and proper pulleys, as shown in Figure 1. Motor 50 is also connected by a belt 62 with a horizontal main line shaft 63 which, by belt 64, drives a pulley 35 on used for driving any number of units such as those shown in Figure 1.

.Of course, the several reels of a given unit, 0 in other words, those reels traversed inorder by a single thread from the coagulating bath to the collecting devices, should be so proportioned to each other as to operate in harmony without detrimental effect upon the thread. In other words, theremust be an organized timed relation between the reels of a single unit and the same timed relation should persist throughout all the units of a single machine. In addition, the reels of a given unit should'bear proper relation to each other, particularly as to their relative circumferential dimensions, If it is assumed that there is no longitudinal stretch or shrinkage in the thread as it progresses through the unit, the efiective circumferential dimensions of all of the reels of the given unit should be identical, and, in any event, care should be taken to see that no reel has an effective circumferential dimension less than that of its predecessor: otherwise, slack in tlhe thread would be produced between the two ree s.

Preferably, each reel has-an effective circumference very slightly greater, if'anything, than the circumference of its'predecessor, so as to insure absence of slack in the carry-over portion of the thread from reel to reel; but, if preferred, any desired definite amount of stretch may be put into the thread between successive reels by making the following reel greater in circumference than its predecessor. The diflerences in circumference, however, usually should be very slight unless, as in the latter case, it is desired to impart considerable stretch to the thread, when any desirable differences in diameter may be resorted to. A similar efiect may be accomplished by so arranging the driving mechanism as to drive different reels, at different speeds. An increase in the angular speed of a following reel obviously requires stretch of the thread.

The apparatus should also be arranged for convenience in threading up, for which purpose successive reels are offset horizontally relative to each other, as shown in Figure 2. In other words, while the axes of the reels are parallel to each other, each reel is just a little nearer to'the front of the machine than its predecessor reel next above it. The thread is wound upon the reels so that the leading and following portions of the thread, where the thread passes from reel to reel, are tangent to the reels at the front of the. machine, but are not truly vertical. As a consequence, when the machine is threaded up,

the free end of the thread is applied to one of the bars on the upper reel while it is rotating. The thread is then wound by the reeling operation upon the first or uppermost reel, the helical turns progressing bodily toward the right, Figure I 1, until the discharge point is reached. The leading end of the thread is then picked off and is led down to the next reel, with similar operations at each of the successive reels, and thence to the final collecting device. Preferably, however, the reels are provided with means to cause the leading free end of the thread to automatically pass from reel to reel, to thereby automatically thread up the entire machine. 7

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty reside in the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In the manufacture of thread or the like by a process pursuant to which the thread or the like is subjected to processing treatment on one or more of a plurality of vertically spaced threadadvancing reels. the method of threading up com prising'applying the thread or the like to an upper reel of said plurality of thread-advancing 16 lower reel of said plurality of thread-advancing reels; applying the leading endof the thread or the like to said lower reel; and causing the thread or the like, to progress in generally helical form along the surface of said lower reel.

2. In the manufacture of thread or the like by a process pursuant to which the thread or the like is subjected to processing treatment on one or more of a plurality of vertically spaced threadadvancing reels, the method of threading up coma prising causing the thread or the like to progress in generally helical form along the surface of an upper reel of said plurality of thread-advancing reels; manually transferring the leading end of the thread or the like, aided by gravity, from the of which face toward a common front, the method of threading up comprising applying the thread or the like to an upper reel of said plurality of thread-advancing reels, causing the thread or the like to progress in generally helical turns along the surface of said upper reel, manually disengaging the leading end of the thread or the like from the portion of the reel facing said common front, causing the leading end of the thread or the like, aided by gravity, to be brought into proximity to a lower reel of said plurality of thread-advancing reels, applying thev leading end of the thread or the like to said lower reel, and causing the thread or the like to progress in generally helical turns along the surface of said lower reel.

HAYDEN B. KLINE. WALTER F. KNEBUSCH. ALDEN a H. BURKHOLDER. 

